Les examens sont finir
And now we enter the final month of school [LATE POST OBVIOUSLY ha]
I’ve been putting off writing my recap for Weeks 4-7. I’ll eventually get to it but for now, I’ll write about our 8th week at school (so it doesn’t add up to my backlog!)
I’m writing this now at one of my 2 fave spots here in Agde (there aren’t that many tbh), a small tapas bar near La Grande Roue and within cartwheel distance from my other favorite spot, L’Ecailler; taking a break from my new fave drink le Monaco and having a Spanish beer with a squirt of lemon syrup instead.
I digress.
So this week was Meat Week and for the first 2 days, we literally got our hands dirty prepping and cooking un lapin (rabbit). I knew that at some point we’d have to cook a rabbit but I was still somehow shocked to see a skinned one on my chopping board as I was returning to my station after getting a knife from the wall. I found it easier deboning a rabbit and removing its insides compared to a chicken. There was a minor mishap with cooking the first dish in the oven but in the end, it didn’t matter much as it was still gastronomnomnom. I didn’t eat the second dish though because we cooked it with morels and if I’m not mistaken, it’s what caused my last trip to the emergency room in Singapore back in 2021 so no, I’m not gonna risk another trip to the ER.
The following day, we worked with one of my fave meats ever: lamb. Je l’adore beaucoup (I hope my French prof reads this and is proud of me for using pronom complément - je rigole 😁). I know not everyone is a fan but everytime I see lamb on a restaurant’s menu, I just have to order it. Apart from eating it, I love cooking it too with just salt and pepper, some butter, garlic, and if I have it lying around, rosemary. I remember cooking lamb chops for my brother Paolo almost every night for a week when I spent some time at home in July and it was precious time spent together as I accompanied him for dinner. Anyhoo, it was interesting cooking lamb this time with a gastronomic lens. My partner and I didn’t end up having our checkerboard thingy to work but I saw how the other teams dealt with their f*d up checkerboard too so I followed suit and tbf it turned out not bad. That is the beauty of cooking, you can somehow rectify mistakes (or eat them in case it’s not salvageable at all). I have yet to learn how to fix sauces that break though (something I managed to do with a fish-based sauce last week).
Next day was beef day but I had to be on my own for the day as my partner was out sick. Everyone around me was so sweet, making sure I had the help I needed. I got to take the sweet potato gnochhi dough home too since I had so much left so I cooked it in brown butter, garlic, and a bit of cream.
And finally D-day came. I haven’t had proper sleep the entire week as I would get up very early (3/4am-ish) to study for both French and Cuisine exams. I really struggled with French pronouns, especially with the relatifs and composés but I finally cracked the code in time for the exams (still challenging for me to use it in a proper conversation but I’ll work on it). The French test was easier than I expected but definitely much harder compared to our first exam. For Cuisine, there was no written test this time around (thank goodness!) but we had no idea what we’ll have to work with during the exam. I prepared as much as I could, trying to review what we’ve cooked so far, thinking about what ingredients will work together given I’ll see this and that on the kitchen table. I had come up with several options in case some ingredients are not available on test day. Once we were let inside the kitchen and shown the ingredients we’d need to work with that Friday afternoon, I was a bit relieved because Option 2 will work. I really wanted to do Option 1 which was pasta, but the meat we were given was duck and it won’t really go well with the pasta recipe I prepared. I came up with pan-seared duck on a bed of creamy garlic pumpkin and potato purée with orange butter sauce. As the name suggests the orange sauce I made has beurre blanc as a base; it was delish and paired really well with the duck. All in all I was happy with what I’ve come up with; it’s just that I should’ve trusted my gut and put more sauce instead of just dotting them in. It’s a sauce after all and not a condiment. Lesson learned! It was the last thing I put on my plate too and didn’t have enough time to re-plate in case I messed it up. But yes, l liked what I made and when I ate it at home that evening, I thought I’d gladly pay for that dish.
Here are all the dishes we cooked this week:
Outside of school, here are a few things:
I’ve been going to the gym again: running, rowing, skipping rope, and shadowboxing and kicking.
This week’s drinks night with Gastronomnom were the nomnom-type of extra as some of us (Connie, Carmen, Noah, and I think Cath?) joined the Canapés workshop and had a ton of finger food to share
Pre-game at my favourite after-school-on-Fridays pub 
Charles is on pole! It’s funny because that night, following note #2 above, I slept at 2am, woke up before 7am to watch Qualifying, forgetting it’s actually at 9. But it was well worth it. I obviously was hoping he’d finally get that W from pole the next day, but you know, Max 😅 It was an amazing race though! Probably my fave of the season. I was stress-eating chocolates that the pastry students gave me. The final lap of the Vegas race was so intense; I’m sorry to my neighbour for screaming at the TV so early in the morning 😅
Happy to report that I’m not totally lost anymore in Church. I can already join the congregation in responding as well as singing in French 💪
Ça sera tout! Here’s a photo of Clochette to bid you all au revoir!
